what chords

hi there,
can anyone tell me what type of chords to use over a pentatonic lick

actualy any chord out there will fit the scale,
but if you into blues then try major chords with minor scales, and try 7th and 9 chords, also you can use the
7/9+ chord in jimmy hendrix style, and the 11 and 13 chords

ouh yes and of course the 6 ones

you mean all chords,
give me an example like if you are soloing in the key of A for a rock song
then what chords do i use. do i use ABCDEF or G

The most common would be A7 or Amin, D of some sort (7, 9, etc), and an e of some sort, but that is just scratching the surface. Put it this way, any note that you play on a lick can have a chord put over it. If you are trying to put chords to a melody, you can do this: find where the most important notes are, the ones that are stressed the most. Think of any chord that includes that note in it (not any chord that has that note in its key, but a chord that has it in an actual chord triad of position). That is it. There are a hell of a lot of chords you can find. Next, pick the ones that sound good.
Of course, if you want to make it sound like a regular poppy sort of tune, pick chords that are all in the same key, and choose the key that the lick is in.

I think you misinterpretted Zeppelin, when he said any chord he was talking about chord quality (major, minor, dominant, etc...)not any chord on the fretboard. All these chords Zeppelin was talking about would have the same root (A, A-, A-7, A7, etc..) Just don't use a major 7th chord over your minor pentatonic riff, may sound alittle funny.

now it makes sense i must use chords that are the same name
with the notes on the scale, but what confuses me is, what is chord quality which is described by chris mood

[Edited by dev on 10-16-2001 at 08:46 AM]

yeah i was talking about the chords with the same root
which in this case would be A

there are 5 tonal qualities that we use to describe scales/ chords/ melodies/ etc..in western music; Major, Minor, Dominant, Diminished, and Augmented. Everything you play fits into one of these tonalities.
In common english these are sounds and words we use to describe them. Good luck and keep asking questions, thats how you learn.

what is a dominant tonality? i guess it has to do something with flat 7, right?

now my head is spinning , can you give an example like playing a lick for a heavy metal song , what tonality do i use?

[Edited by dev on 10-17-2001 at 10:23 AM]

again these are jusr words to describe sounds so that we can better communicate w/each other as musicians. You should train your ear to recognize these sounds, just remember that all chords come from scales

TONALITIE............CHORD..............SCALE
major................Cmaj...........Maj/lydian
minor...............Cmin (C-)....Dorian,Phrygian,Aeolian
Dominant..............C7..............Mixolydian
Diminished..........Cdim7............Diminished
augmented..........Caug (C+)..........wholetone

to answer your questions;
Zeppelin - yes
Dev - What tonality do you want to use? The choice is yours
Depending on the tonality of the riff would determine what type of chord to play.

[Edited by chris mood on 10-17-2001 at 01:22 PM]

now i choose minor tonality ,if the key is A then i can play
Amin but what about other chords in the scale.

.....Its simple. If your soloing in A Minor Pentatonic you can use any chord that fits in the scale. An easier way to understand it would be to look at it like this: the notes that make up the basic A Minor Pentatontic Scale are A, C, D, E, and G, therefore you can use the A, C, D, E, and G chords of any tonality that you want with your lick.

what if i combine my A minor pentatonic scale with other notes to create dorian scale,now does the chord tonality changes for the notes in that scale(dorian)

Dev man, no wonder you're confused. Once you get beyond all the theorical stuff, you'll realize that there are only three basic sounds you improvise to: major, minor, and dominant. All the augmented, diminished, and altered scales/licks apply to dominant (G7, C7 etc...). Everything else is either major or minor. Good luck man

chris mood, i know you somewhere in there could you please answer my question to mighteebean17 and what is jazz_alta trying to say.

Three basic sounds and what to use:

Major - can use major scales, pentatonic, licks, etc. that are of a major quality
Minor - same as above except use minor scales, modes, etc.
Dominant - everything else, including Augumented, Diminshed, altered (G7b5b9, etc.) scales, licks etc.

Of course, all the above apply to the root or tonic chords.
Think of the "quality" of the chord when you improvise. Ask yourself, "Which of the three sounds is it"?

When we overanalyze things we can get confused. If you keep at it long enough, the above forumla is probably where you'll arrive. Joe Pass taught me that some years ago. Simplicity is the key.

Originally posted by dev
what if i combine my A minor pentatonic scale with other notes to create dorian scale,now does the chord tonality changes for the notes in that scale(dorian)

Not to confuse you anymore, but the actual answer to that question would be yes & no. Lets start w/the no;

It is a common thing w/rock & blues guitarists to borrow notes from the dorian when creating with a pentatonic scale. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall pt.2) and Santana (Black Magic Woman) are good examples of this, Slash (G&R) does this a lot too. So just because you slip in a couple of notes from the Dorian does not mean you have to change your chord progression.

A dorian scale, on the other hand is not as flexible as a Pentatonic scale. A dorian scale is actually derived from a Major scale. Ex: C maj. (C D E F G A B C) D dorian (D E F G A B C D) starting and stopping on the 2nd degree. So if your gonna write a riff or melody using a dorian scale you have to take the chords that appear within the major scale harmony into consideration. Here's an ex. using A dorian/G major;

Harmony (chords) that exist within a G maj. scale
G A- B- C D E- F# diminished

Jazz alta is trying to give you a simplier way of looking at things (which I totally agree with) But sometimes with this stuff it's better to at first learn it as in depth as possible then form your own veiw of how to apply it in a practical sense. Good luck

sorry everyone i know my last question was a stupid question,anyway can you guys tell me what scales can be combined ,i only know to combine a dorian scale with a blues
scale.

[Edited by dev on 10-30-2001 at 07:23 AM]